Mom Works, So Kids Are Bigger: True or False?
>> Friday, February 4, 2011
There was an interesting article in The Globe and Mail today. It discussed the possible correlation between childhood obesity and the amount of hours the mother worked.
The article basically said, in a study that screened 900 elementary school students in 10 US cities they found a direct correlation between the number if hours the mother worked and the increased BMI of the child.
This does make some sense. If the mother is working there is more chances that she cannot be home to cook a nutritious meal and is more likely to take her kids out for fast food.
What do you think? Is there any truth to this study?
7 comments:
True! For younger kids, maybe not so much because you can control what is brought into the house. With younger kids it can be related to inactivity (video games & television) and unhealthy snacks. Older kids that have money to buy their own food while mom is at work...definitely a possibility!
Great post Miss Haneefa!
On one had I can understand. If a mother is raising a child alone and has to work an excessive amount of hours she may take the easy route out and head to Mc Donald’s to make her life easier. On the other hand, I don't always trust these so called studies. It is easy to twist results to get a desired outcome. How can I be sure the study is not biased? In my opinion, these studies are okay if they also give information on how mothers can get the assistance they need in order to make the right choices.
I just tweeted about this. This story is approached from the absolute wrong angle. It's really about socioeconomic status/education and obesity versus working mom and obesity.
The studies have been done time and time again, rates of obesity are lower in the educated and those of higher socioeconomic status. The ability of one parent to stay at home, is indicative of a higher socioeconomic status. I think it's the connection they've missed.
If they did a study of kids of less educated parent(s) and with less means, would the findings be consistent.
My biggest problem was school lunches. although they gave the right amount of servings all that frozen pizza fries frozen burritos couldnt be good for anyone! and Im a stay at home mome and my son doesnt always get the best meals mostly because he is a picky eater and on days like today where nothing I give him seems to work I get him something that I know he will eat. like fast food or some frozen chicken tenders or even a slice of pizza. I think some kids get habbits and as a mom I can say I hate to see my son go without eating. But yes snacks are a major factor as well. to much munching not really hungry. When my brother is home and there is snacks and ham and cheese and bread and god knows what else he will eat all the time cereal juice anything even left overs, when there is nothing in the house he waits for his after school meal then gym then home for a late night dinner Luckily hes in shape BUT I can see where that affects the. Dont think its neccessarily the time away from home cause some one has to care for the kids so whose feeding them and if they are old enough to stay at home how much garbage is in the house?! in the end it is the moms (grocery shoppers) fault but just because some one works I dont think would be the biggest factor. eating healthy all day and a bad dinner isnt gonna put kids into obesity!
I guess it makes sense but there are some other factors too you can take into consideration like how much activity time the kids have. Kids today don't go outside and play as much as we did when we were growing up and I am sure all the children in my class (age group) had working mothers and we weren't overweight. I am not 100% convinced... But nice post.
It's just too simple to put the blame on the working mother. I think that the development of women in the workplace over the years has coincided with the the 'denutrition' of the foods we choose to eat but I don't think that one has caused the other. The bigger blame lies with companies who now manufacture food with cheaper, unhealthier ingredients and marketing companies who tell me that "four times the steeeaaak" is something i really want in my burrito...lol. Part of the blame is ours too, self control is lacking. I've been doing so well since the year began but i'm ashamed to admit that I had pizzas, wings, chips and beer in my shopping cart this afternoon....the superbowl was my excuse.
I think there has to be some truth to that, it's hard work to be working all day then plan healthy meals! I can barely do it for myself much less if I had kids!
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